Reply to: State of the Market

[willendure]

WillEnsure has returned to the bench.

Contract is at an end and I told them I was leaving anyway - turns out there was no extension on offer either. A mutual split from a decent enough client that has paid on time and seen me through a tough market. I could even say, proud of achieving a thing or too, and the hiring manager did acknowledge at least that it was a tough gig and I did it without complaint (I vented on here instead!).

What is next in life? Its such a lovely feeling to enjoy that moment of having a bit of money and freedom. I could happily go back to the life of working 1/2 but getting paid double what a permie does, now that my mortgage is paid off and kids are a bit older. Its good to be reminded what the positives of contracting are.

[willendure]

For comparision, in London, if you have deep expert Kafka knowledge then you can can double the income, for example, https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/search...Id=4311413693& Senior Software Developer (Java/Kafka) - Up To £130,000 + Bonus - FTC (sadly it is not Outside IR35)

Kafka seems to be still alive as a well paid and fairly niche skill. Been using Kinesis a lot lately for AWS stuff, but its not as good as Kafka and Kafka Streams. Actually I have a little project soon to interface a new stream processing language into Kafka Streams, will tell you about it some time if I pull it off.

[willendure]

Oh, when will the straight white 50+ man catch a break?! They've had it so tough, life must be so hard for them.

Thats more like it. And I have a sore shoulder, can you give it a rub too?

[rocktronAMP]

Being discriminated against for being white is commonplace now you are spot on.

Not seen any uptick in the market as yet.

Well I have seen one Black IT Director (Deutsche Bank 2001) and one Black Head of Engineering (Digital agency 2013) in a British company in my 27 year IT largely software engineering career to date.

If you look at the leadership team portfolios of most consultancies, small to mid-level businesses, then you can tell me, if there has been progress. Even when you look at IT conferences where professionals are speaking, I don't see change: same old faces like Talking Heads (Same as it ever was). I admit this evidence is anecdotal as in common sense.

[rocktronAMP]

How low can you go?!

See more jobs like this
Applicants who require a work visa considered

Software Engineer (Angular/Kotlin/Springboot) | 6 Month Contract (OIR35) | Hybrid

We're looking for a Full Stack Software Engineer to play a key role in developing and evolving a suite of high-performance applications. You'll be working across the entire technology stack, from dynamic, user-friendly web interfaces to robust, scalable Back End microservices - helping to deliver impactful releases in an agile, four-week sprint cycle.

Location: Coventry (2 days onsite)

Contract: 6 months (OIR35)

Rate: £250-300 p/day

Start date: ASAP

So they want someone with advanced Kotlin and Java Spring Boot with front end knowledge to contract for the range £55,000 [ == 220 * 250pd ], £66,000 [ == 220 * 300pd ] - I don't live anywhere near Coventry to boot, but this client will get what they are prepared to pay for, if they find someone.

For comparision, in London, if you have deep expert Kafka knowledge then you can can double the income, for example, https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/search...Id=4311413693& Senior Software Developer (Java/Kafka) - Up To £130,000 + Bonus - FTC (sadly it is not Outside IR35)

State of the Market, indeed. Sucks!

[Cookielove]

ensignia if you read I'm talking about much wider issues, youngsters starting out in their career the discrimination is real.

Do you actually read before starting with the insults

Moronic post, my concern is for the future generations as it is too late for us oldies under the current regime

[ensignia]

Well that is the polar opposite to me and my family/friend's experiences...discrimination against whites is rife.

We have family up north and my nephew wanted to join West Yorkshire police earlier in the year and they blocked applications from white British to increase diversity/ethnicity numbers.

I've seen it time and again in the public sector where I applied for perm roles and the DEI policy actively discriminates against whites...the job adverts even go as far to say that they welcome applications from diverse backgrounds...crazy! They want to tick boxes rather than get the best skilled person, whites are back of the queue in their home country...shameful.

Oh, when will the straight white 50+ man catch a break?! They've had it so tough, life must be so hard for them.

[Cookielove]

As a white male boomer, I'm not seeing this - I still see quite a bit of discrimination against Black and Asian people.

I do suspect I am being discriminated against on age grounds, I have a badly paid (in comparison with contracts and prior jobs) permie job, but I cannot catch a cold for anything else, contract or perm.

Well that is the polar opposite to me and my family/friend's experiences...discrimination against whites is rife.

We have family up north and my nephew wanted to join West Yorkshire police earlier in the year and they blocked applications from white British to increase diversity/ethnicity numbers.

I've seen it time and again in the public sector where I applied for perm roles and the DEI policy actively discriminates against whites...the job adverts even go as far to say that they welcome applications from diverse backgrounds...crazy! They want to tick boxes rather than get the best skilled person, whites are back of the queue in their home country...shameful.

[oliverson]

so what are you complaining about, now?

Agreeing about the need to get out of bed and do something!

[quackhandle]

For people asking, if my current skills are relevant, this is what I can do:

Java Dev
Node.js Dev
C# Dev
VB.net Dev
VB6 Dev (yes, really!)
SQL
Postgre
MySQL
Episerver/opitmizely

Ah, so it was you with the VB stuff, did you see the role I posted last week? No good?

qh

[Peoplesoft bloke]

Being discriminated against for being white is commonplace now you are spot on.

.

As a white male boomer, I'm not seeing this - I still see quite a bit of discrimination against Black and Asian people.

I do suspect I am being discriminated against on age grounds, I have a badly paid (in comparison with contracts and prior jobs) permie job, but I cannot catch a cold for anything else, contract or perm.

[sadkingbilly]

<More spanish tourist board sh1te>

so what are you complaining about, now?

[oliverson]

Even if I knew my living expenses were covered, I couldn't spend 2 years on the bench. I'd have to do something, anything. Not because I'd worry about the time spent out of work but just simply for a reason to get out of bed in the morning and not spend my days watching Homes Under the Hammer.

I'm experiencing this right now. Sat out in Spain and the weather is superb. Each day just blends into the next. I'm the kind of person that really needs a purpose. I can't understand how people can just spend each day here sat in the sunshine, eating and drinking, then do it all again the following day. The trouble is, this kind of weather doesn't lend itself well to productivity, certainly not me. I just got back with the first dog walk of the day, two miles in hilly terrain and it's shirt off again, trying to cool down. I need to get back to the UK and embrace the upcoming wintery months. Land a new contract and get back on with the plan B's. The sunshine can wait.

[ladymuck]

I don't have a warchest. I have invested wisely which returns, living expenses.

Just finished year 2 on the bench. I am a lot fitter now though Life is too short to worry.

Even if I knew my living expenses were covered, I couldn't spend 2 years on the bench. I'd have to do something, anything. Not because I'd worry about the time spent out of work but just simply for a reason to get out of bed in the morning and not spend my days watching Homes Under the Hammer.

[rocktronAMP]

For people asking, if my current skills are relevant, this is what I can do:

Java Dev
Node.js Dev
C# Dev
VB.net Dev
VB6 Dev (yes, really!)
SQL
Postgre
MySQL
Episerver/opitmizely

Current SC runs out 2034

Live and work in London, would prefer office based based but really don't mind TBF.

I don't have a warchest. I have invested wisely which returns, living expenses.

Just finished year 2 on the bench. I am a lot fitter now though Life is too short to worry.

Perhaps reorder into relevance of client interest.

Read back-end staff engineer. List the versions. Java 25 (just released September 2025), 21 (previous LTS - long term release September 2023) or Java 8 (released 2013)

Ditto with C# (what version of C#, dot Net? Do you know Microsoft's public cloud offering, Azure? If yes you do, then advertise it!)

PostgreSQL and MySQL before generic SQL, in fact dump SQL, because former two means you know it.

Episerver / Optimizely move that to the top of skills list, especially if it is niche that certain clients value.